Viking Venus Maiden Voyage

[Haworth]

Thanks to Peregrina651 for  posting this information, for those of us with a vested interest in the maiden voyage it looks like we now have an indication of when that is likely to be, as of yet none of these dates have been posted on Viking's UK web site

 

 

Thanks for the heads up! I managed to find also the reposition cruise of the Venus from Barcelona to London on Jan 26, 2021.

 

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by Haworth

[cruisinchrissy]

I thought the Venus Ship was due to be delivered April 2021? So those of you who know where to look. Is it now ahead of schedule?

thanks.

[Peregrina651]

5 hours ago, Haworth said:

Thanks to Peregrina651 for  posting this information

 

Hey don't blame me. Giving credit where credit is due, I didn't even know it was there until  @cruisewiththekids mentioned it; otherwise, I would not have known to look. Viking loves a "soft opening."

 

I also saw the Barcelona to London but did not see anything before it. It may or may not be the maiden voyage of the ship and even if it is now, in the end, it may not be. It is way to far from the tentative launch date to be certain. If DH weren't still working full time and if we didn't already have a cruise scheduled for a few months later, I was so tempted to book, just so I could say I have been on a maiden voyage ;-).

Edited June 11, 2019 by Peregrina651

[Haworth]

Thanks for that and thanks to @cruisewiththekids, we would love to be up to speed with plans for Viking Venus.

[DGHOC]

Trying to work this out Haworth. As they are selling cabins on the Venus repositioning cruise sailing from Barcelona on the 26th January, are we to assume that the maiden voyage to which we are supposedly invited will be the middle of January 2021? I really don't know how this works but with previous maiden voyages they have started in Italy and then worked round to the embarkation port of the first cruise.

[Liz Masterson]

I've got no pony in this show... but perhaps the maiden Voyage is from Venice to London? End of January? 

 

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, Liz Masterson said:

I've got no pony in this show... but perhaps the maiden Voyage is from Venice to London? End of January? 

 

 

I checked all of the tours on the books for January. 2021 and there is nothing open to the public that is leaving from Venice. At this point, it looks like they will sail from Venice to Barcelona as their "shake-down" with invited guests filling the cabins, making the Barcelona to London the maiden voyage for the public. This can change, one way or another, as January, 2021 approaches and they get a better estimate on when the ship will be turned over to its new owner.

[OnTheJourney]

19 hours ago, Haworth said:

Thanks to Peregrina651 for  posting this information, for those of us with a vested interest in the maiden voyage it looks like we now have an indication of when that is likely to be, as of yet none of these dates have been posted on Viking's UK web site

 

 

Thanks for the heads up! I managed to find also the reposition cruise of the Venus from Barcelona to London on Jan 26, 2021.

 

 

 

"Thanks to Pergrina" for posting what information? Is there a schedule already for the Venus maiden voyage?  The above schedule is, presumably, the Northern Lights trip...so that will be on the Venus...most interesting. So...is the repositioning cruise likely to be the maiden voyage prior to the start of the NL run?  Was hoping for a bit later in the year then winter.

 

I wonder, too, how will this work relative to the invitation that was extended to Sky guests? Will the cruise open to us first before the general public? Potentially, the Sky could fill that ship. I read somewhere that it could even be done as a 'charter' for us, and then remaining available cabins open to the public. Probably will hear more by early 2020. 

[OnTheJourney]

7 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I checked all of the tours on the books for January. 2021 and there is nothing open to the public that is leaving from Venice. At this point, it looks like they will sail from Venice to Barcelona as their "shake-down" with invited guests filling the cabins, making the Barcelona to London the maiden voyage for the public. This can change, one way or another, as January, 2021 approaches and they get a better estimate on when the ship will be turned over to its new owner.

 

OK...looks like you answered my question....so the invitations likely get priority. As you say, too early to say for sure. I've no doubt Sky guests will receive something from Viking about this as the details become finalized. 

 

Update:  just checked the website...looks like the 1/26/21 sailing of the Venus is up and available for booking (?) listed as an Explorer's sale promotion. IF this thing is indeed ready to sell to the public, I'd think we would have been contacted by Viking, but who knows. Anyway, this is probably the 'maiden voyage'.....  https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/multi-region/iberian-explorer/pricing.html#search/sfym=2021-1&sftcm=13-97677   Quite honestly, this itinerary does not appeal to me all that much. For whatever reason, Spain is just not very high on my list...but will probably do it if it works with our schedule. 

 

Interesting, too, is that if you look under the list of ships, it says the Venus is built in 2019 - so is it already completed?  And if so, why wouldn't it be out on the water sooner than 2021?  

Edited June 12, 2019 by gretschwhtfalcon

[OnTheJourney]

Can't help but wonder if the maiden voyage MIGHT be the first NL departure? Wouldn't it be interesting if something like that would be intentional being that the Sky guests, of course, missed part of the journey. Flip side of the coin....just how many of us would actually want to redo that trip again? I sort of think the idea might appeal to me...but could initiate a bit of PTSD for alot of folks as well. I can hear my friends and relatives now...."you are CRAZY for wanting to go up there again!"  LOL.....

Edited June 12, 2019 by gretschwhtfalcon

[Haworth]

40 minutes ago, gretschwhtfalcon said:

Can't help but wonder if the maiden voyage MIGHT be the first NL departure? Wouldn't it be interesting if something like that would be intentional being that the Sky guests, of course, missed part of the journey. Flip side of the coin....just how many of us would actually want to redo that trip again? I sort of think the idea might appeal to me...but could initiate a bit of PTSD for alot of folks as well. I can hear my friends and relatives now...."you are CRAZY for wanting to go up there again!"  LOL.....

Good point, we talked about this option last night, we doubt Viking would adopt that approach, as it could backfire in terms of adverse reactions and publicity, I suspect that we will be offered the shakedown cruise, prior to the first paying customers doing a voyage.

 

I am sure Viking monitor these boards and would anticipate some response in the near future, still can’t see anything on the UK site

[Peregrina651]

58 minutes ago, gretschwhtfalcon said:

.so the invitations likely get priority.

 

When Viking takes possession of a ship, they generally do a few weeks of warm up for the staff and crew before its first "open to the paying public" sailing.  For these first few weeks of sailing, the cabins are filled with invited guests, usually industry insiders and travel writers.

 

As for the invitation made to the NL pax,  instead of guessing, why don't you just ask Viking what the plan is? It is entirely possible that the 1/26 sailing is NOT the maiden voyage and that Viking is working on an entirely different plan. As I keep saying the 1/26 sailing may or may not be the "maiden voyage" and for now it is simply the earliest sailing for that ship that we have found. So far, Viking has not announced a date for the Venus maiden voyage and they have not slapped the maiden voyage label on the 1/26 sailing.

 

[Symmes99]

On the Viking web page for the Venus 1/26 cruise, you can book cabins in every category (although the cabin I had on the Sky in March does not show up in the list - not sure if that means anything). So the 1/26 cruise doesn't seem reserved for the Sky cruisers. That's fine with me - I'd rather sail from Venice to Barcelona, even if it's only 7 days. 

[OnTheJourney]

Then again, are we (Sky guests) certain that the invitation we got for this maiden voyage definitely refers to a complimentary cruise?  That is the impression I think we're all under....will chat with an agent about it and report back here. 

 

Symmes99...I tend to agree - would rather do the Venice to Barcelona, although since we never got to do the London extension - that would be nice as well. HERE's a thought....how about a B2B?  The 1/26 (if it winds up being the maiden AND is complimentary) followed by yet another attempt at the NL cruise from London to Bergen?   Wonder how many of us would do that?  

Edited June 12, 2019 by gretschwhtfalcon

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, gretschwhtfalcon said:

Then again, are we (Sky guests) certain that the invitation we got for this maiden voyage definitely refers to a complimentary cruise?  That is the impression I think we're all under....will chat with an agent about it and report back here. 

 

Don't talk to a low level agent. Contact the folks at tellus@vikingcruises.com. At least if they don't have an answer for you, they will research it and get back to you.

[OnTheJourney]

Good point....actually, I shouldn't have to do anything. If this is a special invitation, I'm sure all the Sky guests will get some sort of notification. But...I like your suggestion and will ask them. Thanks..

[zitsky]

Why all the excitement about new ships?  They are 99% identical.

 

???

[ropomo]

9 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Why all the excitement about new ships?  They are 99% identical.

 

???

 

Perhaps new ship smell??? 😀

[zitsky]

1 minute ago, ropomo said:

 

Perhaps new ship smell??? 😀

 

Ewww.  That's gross.

[Symmes99]

I think people excited about this new ship would be the passengers from the Viking Sky Northern Lights cruise this past March (I was one). We received a letter from the Chairman inviting us to be his guest on the maiden voyage of the Viking Venus. So I've been keeping an eye out, but didn't expect such an early notice of the new ship's schedule, because construction started around the same time we were drifting off the coast of Norway and the shipyard schedule showed an April 2021 delivery date. But you are correct, there'll be nothing special about this ship that should garner extra attention. It's really the free cruise that has my attention - even if it's a shorter cruise than I'm used to taking. 

[sleepybobo]

4 hours ago, zitsky said:

 

Ewww.  That's gross.

 

I was on the Sun’s maiden voyage. I did have concern about “new ship smell” or the staff not being ready when I booked the cruise. I’m glad to say the Sun was ready for her maiden voyage. Everything was pristine. We actually would like to do another maiden voyage shall an opportunity comes up. 

 

P.S. There’s no new ship smell. Lol

Edited June 14, 2019 by sleepybobo

[What was that?]

All, I did ask the Viking agent I was corresponding with about doing a B2B with the Barcelona-London to the Northern Lights cruises, and he stated: "Yes, this is the maiden voyage for the Venus ( Jan26th- Feb 2^nd, 2021)."

And speaking of maiden "voyages," we flew to TPA from PHX in May on the maiden revenue flight of an Airbus A321NX, and yes, it did have that new airplane smell!

[JDincalif]

Posted this on another thread, but seems more appropriate on this one:

In addition to emailing tellus@viking.com regarding the Viking Venus cruise, we asked our TA to investigate. Her contact at Viking responded that details regarding our maiden voyage cruise will be provided by email in the next couple of months. 

 

 

[OnTheJourney]

On 6/14/2019 at 10:57 AM, What was that? said:

All, I did ask the Viking agent I was corresponding with about doing a B2B with the Barcelona-London to the Northern Lights cruises, and he stated: "Yes, this is the maiden voyage for the Venus ( Jan26th- Feb 2^nd, 2021)."

And speaking of maiden "voyages," we flew to TPA from PHX in May on the maiden revenue flight of an Airbus A321NX, and yes, it did have that new airplane smell!

 

I'm doubtful...I also talked to an agent and did not get that impression at all. It may i need by considered the maiden voyage for the general public, but there are several non-public sailings for various groups of people that occur pre-season, one of which is likely to be the one intended for the 3/23 Sky guests, and so since the ship is going to be built in Venice, the impression I got is that the maiden voyage is very likely to be a Venice to Barcelona sailing, which would fit the pattern of previous 'maiden' voyages. The maiden voyage, if indeed reserved in some fashion for the Sky guests, would not be open to the public yet OR I truly believe we would have been informed already. I really don't think this sailing is the one. 

Edited June 16, 2019 by gretschwhtfalcon

[OnTheJourney]

On 6/13/2019 at 4:16 PM, zitsky said:

Why all the excitement about new ships?  They are 99% identical.

 

???

 

The excitement does not concern the ship per se, but rather the invitation from Mr. Hagen to the Sky guests to be part of the Venus' maiden voyage.